


Meeting the Parents

by Kujo1597



Series: Off the Train [1]
Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Can totally be seen as Jesslake, Gen, I have this marked as Gen since their relationship is about the same as on the show, I waffled on the rating because this is definitely PG, Post-Canon, So I rated it T to be on the safe side, There's 2.5 swears and talk about trauma on par with the show itself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22573606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kujo1597/pseuds/Kujo1597
Summary: Jesse and Lake have both gotten off of the train. They were free, they were safe, they... really needed to fill Jesse's family in.With any luck Jesse's new friend being metal would help things be more believable. And it's not like he's a good liar anyway.
Relationships: Jesse Cosay & Lake (Infinity Train)
Series: Off the Train [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758598
Comments: 14
Kudos: 173





	Meeting the Parents

**Author's Note:**

> Imagining how Lake meeting Jesse’s family would go honestly did keep me awake some days because of how much I was enjoying thinking about it. If you have read my previous Infinity Train fanfics then you do know I headcanon Lake as nonbinary. But since this takes place immediately after the season I’m going with canon pronouns for this one.

As Lake stood by the water, looking at her surroundings Jesse found himself thinking. For one thing, he had no idea how time even worked on the train. And another,

his new friend is very obviously metal.

Which would probably help in convincing his parents that the train is real in all honesty. That danged train was the real problem, who would believe in such a thing?

“How long was I gone for?” Jesse asked Nate, he figured he might as well get an answer for that first thought.

“Almost three weeks!” Nate replied, he started to tear up. “We’ve all been so worried about you! I... I think mom and dad thought you would never come back.”

“THREE WEEKS!” Jesse shouted after finally processing the information. Then the rest hit him. “Wait, what. Did you tell them I’m back yet?”

“Yeah, I went into the house and told them, **_then you vanished again!”_** A mixture of relief, concern, and frustration were all on the poor kid’s face.

“I didn’t tell you time passes like normal?” Lake had walked over without either Cosay noticing. “Well, for what it’s worth, you have it better than Tulip. She was gone for several months. At least...” Lake rubbed the back of her head. “I wasn’t exactly there when she got off.”

“Who’s Tulip?” Nate asked.

“I used to reflect her,” Lake replied. “Obviously you know I’m chrome, I’m a reflection, I guess? I’m not really doing that anymore. Tulip helped free me. I mean, I tricked her first. But she still helped me which was cool of her.”

Nate’s eyebrows furrowed. “Okay. I have so many questions now.”

Lake rolled her eyes. “Jesse did too. Ask away.”

“Hold on,” Jesse put his hand between Lake and Nate. “My parents will have questions too. How about we tell them about you, and then you can have a Q&A session with all of us?”

“That works for me,” Lake said as she put her hands on her hips. 

“Sure, I can wait,” Nate agreed. 

“Great!” Jesse pumped his fist. “Oh, but. How much _do_ we tell my parents?”

“I think we can tell them everything,” Lake replied. “But maaaybe we should leave out the murders.”

“Wait, murders?” Nate said.

“Yeah we probably should,” Jesse didn’t hear his brother. “At least until my parents get to know you as the chaotic good person I do.”

“Chaotic good?” Lake also didn’t hear Nate. “That’s pretty generous, I’m way too morally grey for that alignment.”

“Wait hold on, murders?” Nate repeated himself. “Plural?”

“They were in self-defence,” Lake defended herself. “Those guys spent _months_ trying to kill me. All because I wanted to live my own life.”

“What they were doing was really messed up,” Jesse nodded. “And terrifying. They were only after the both of us for a couple weeks and even I got jumpy when I saw my own reflection.”

“Why your reflection?” Nate asked.

“The flecs could pop out anything reflective,” Jesse replied.

“But only when I was reflected,” Lake added. 

Nate pointed at Lake with a puzzled expression. “Can you pop out of reflective things?”

“Nah,” Lake replied with a shrug. “The flecs were made differently from me. Well, they used to be like me but then they became flecs and have to wear skin suits so they don’t leak everywhere.”

“Mirror people are confusing,” Nate scratched his head.

“Fleshy people are if you ask me,” Lake said as she walked towards Jesse’s house.

Jesse called out to her as he caught up with Nate following. “We’re talking to my parents now?”

Lake shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Just rip off the Band-Aid. Nate said they thought you died anyway so they probably **_really_** want to see you.”

“Oh gosh,” Jesse dragged his hand down his face. “He totally did say that.” A groan. “And I came really close too.”

“But you didn’t, I made sure of that,” Lake put her hand on her chest. “Which is one more point in my favour.”

“Why would you need points with my parents?”

“Jesse, c’mon, look at me. To most parents I wouldn’t exactly scream ‘upstanding citizen’ and on top of that, I’m this weirdo claiming to be chrome.”

“I dunno, my parents aren’t all that judgy. And like you said, they’re going to be happy to see me,” Jesse held Lake’s hand. “And you too since you really helped me out on that train.”

Lake blushed. “Honestly, you helped me too. When I watched your tape, again, sorry about that, I uh, saw how I used to be. I really changed for the better.”

Jesse smiled warmly and leaned on Lake. “I dunno, I always liked you.”

“You like everyone. I mean seriously, I ran up yelling at you, and you just introduced yourself with a smile.”

Jesse laughed at the memory. “You’re right, I did do that. But hey, if I didn’t then who knows where we’d be?”

“Probably still on the train.”

“Right. I’d be brainwashed by The Apex, and...” Jesse didn’t want to continue down that line of thought.

“I’d still be living in fear of the flecs,” Lake had no problem going there apparently. “I’m glad I met you.”

“I am too.” Jesse squeezed Lake’s hand.

* * *

The trio made it to Jesse’s house which honestly wasn’t a long walk, it just felt like it. Jesse decided that maybe holding Lake’s hand would send his parents the wrong message about their relationship. Although Lake did seem disappointed.

“I should probably stay out here,” she said.

“No,” Jesse replied, perhaps a bit too quickly. He just reunited with Lake, he... couldn’t stand to leave her again so soon. “I mean...” A sigh.

“I get it. But don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. You should see your parents on your own at first. _Then_ get me.” Lake kicked the dirt. “Besides, I feel like I’d be intruding on your reunion.”

After a deep breath Jesse decided that maybe Lake was right. He should see his parents on his own at first. But he also kind of didn’t want to, it’d make explaining where he was so much harder. And the lack of moral support from Lake wasn’t exactly encouraging. 

Jesse rested his head on the door. “You can do this Jesse, you’ve only been gone for three weeks.”

He opened the door and we immediately given a crushing hug from his mom. 

“JESSE WHERE WERE YOU,” she shouted through her tears. “I almost gave up hope!” She let go then backed up with her hands on his shoulders. “Please please please don’t scare me like that again.”

“I’m sorry mom,” Jesse started to cry. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I came back home as soon as I could. I can’t tell you where I was yet, I have a friend standing outside who’ll help it make sense.”

“A friend?”

“Yeah, her name’s Lake, she’s really cool. I owe her a lot. Like, a lot a lot.”

“Well what are you waiting for? Invite her in!”

“Oh, okay,” Jesse opened the door revealing Lake and Nate in the middle of a conversation. Something about elbowing people in the gut? 

Jesse’s mom undoubtedly noticed the sun shining off of Lake’s skin and her metallic grin.

“Mom, this is Lake,” Jesse paid no mind to his mom’s stunned expression as he put his hand on Lake’s shoulder. “I was on a weird train this whole time and Lake was there with me.”

“She’s chrome!” Nate ‘helpfully’ added.

“It’s uh, nice to meet you... Mrs. Cosay,” Lake offered her hand with the surroundings reflected onto it. 

“It’s nice to meet you too, you can call me Whittney,” she shook Lake’s hand, still stunned at the sight of herself reflected on another person. She forced herself to look Lake in the eyes, it was rude not to. But even those were reflective. 

“Everybody stares at first,” she said with a slight sigh. “You’re fine, just get it all out of your system now.”

Jesse leaned in towards Lake, “you’re going to have to get used to this.”

Whittney finally stopped gazing at herself in Lake’s face and turned to Jesse. “We should go see your dad he’s been sitting in the living room waiting for you to come home.”

The second Jesse stepped into the living room his dad got off of the couch and stared at him. As if he was half-expecting Jesse to fade away.

“Hi dad,” Jesse waved at him then realized something, what is he doing?

“DAD!” Jesse shouted as he ran up to his dad and gave him a tight hug, getting one in return. “I missed you so much!”

“That’s what I’m supposed to say,” Mr. Cosay said. “And that I was so worried I’d never see you again. Please, don’t run away again.”

“No, dad,” Jesse broke up the hug. “I didn’t run away. I was picked up by a weird train.” He then gestured towards Lake. “I made a friend on there, she helped me off of it.”

“You know you shouldn’t get into strange vehicle-” Jesse’s dad stopped talking when he looked over at Jesse’s new friend. “What the...”

“Hi, I’m Lake,” she waved awkwardly. “I see you noticed I’m chrome. We’ll explain that in a bit.”

“I’m Stephan,” he said, transfixed by the strange new girl. 

Lake walked over to him and offered her hand, which was taken. “Good to meet you.”

“You too,” Stephan said automatically.

After the handshake ended Lake planted herself partially on the arm of the couch.

“I guess now’s a good time to explain what happened,” Jesse said as he sat down on the cushion next to Lake. His family took their places nearby.

“Oh gosh,” Jesse took a deep breath. “Where to start?”

“The beginning?” Lake said jokingly as she leaned on Jesse.

“Right, the beginning,” for reasons beyond him, Jesse wasn’t exactly expecting to have to try and explain the train to people. “Well, after Nate got hurt I felt terrible. I let that happen to my little bro, I-I did that to my little bro. I sat at the top of the hill for a while and then this train just came out of nowhere and sucked me in.”

Jesse looked around the room and nobody looked like they believe him. Not that he can blame them. But he continued. “I woke up in a pod and this little robot ball told me all about the train and this glowing green number on my hand. I was scared and confused. Eventually I got up and started exploring where I was. I found a door, walked through it and discovered that I was on this gigantic train in the middle of a wasteland. It was insane. I kept going through cars on this train and they were all different from each other. Eventually I ended up in one that looked like fall and I saw a deer. We hung out for a while, I put sunglasses on him. Then Lake charged up to me.”

“Huh? Oh,” Lake took that as her cue to speak. “Yeah so I was mad at Jesse because I spent two days with the same deer and I kinda had my own problems.” She looked around. “I should probably talk about that, shouldn’t I?”

After a long, tired sigh Lake went into her story. “I’m a reflection, or at least I used to be. I’m not sure how exactly to classify myself anymore other than a person. My prime, Tulip was on the train before Jesse and-” Lake noticed a couple confused faces. “-right. A ‘prime’ is somebody who isn’t a reflection. So you guys are all primes. Well, Tulip got onto what she calls The Chrome Car, which is a way cooler name than Mirror World. Anyway, that was my first time I was really able to talk to her and I convinced Tulip to switch places with me so she we could open the door. My original plan was to just leave her there because I was sick of living her life.” Lake realized how that sounded. “Which I know is bad, I have a history of being impulsive, alright? Well I couldn’t leave the car because there wasn’t anything reflective for me to walk on. Meanwhile One-One’s reflection called the flecs on me because I decided to stop reflecting Tulip and broke mirror law.”

“Flecs are basically mirror cops,” Jesse supplied that information noticing that Lake needed a bit of a breather.

“Right, so because I broke mirror law by wanting to be my own person they were trying to catch me and grind me into dust,” Lake continued. “Tulip didn’t want that, we had a heart-to-heart switched back, and she helped me ‘enter’ into a mirror from her multi-tool and pulled me out of the mirror world. We ran off of the car with the flecs behind us. And they got stuck.” Lake pulled up her pant leg and dragged the mirror out of her boot. “I even still have the mirror attached to me. I’m honestly kind of afraid to take it off, I’m not sure what would happen. Eventually, we ended up on a bank car full of pencil people and I stayed there while Tulip continued on her way and got off the train.”

“You had cops trying to kill you?” Whittney was the only one who could find any words. “Did they stop after you got off of the car?”

“No, they chased me down for a couple two three months before I met Jesse,” Lake replied. “And I guess that takes us to where he left off. So my issue I mentioned is that I don’t like being told who I should be and I kinda projected that onto the deer. I guess?”

“A few months?” Whittney went back to that. “I couldn’t imagine being on the run for my life for so long...”

“Wow you are surprisingly chill about all this, I’m going to chalk it up to shock,” Lake rubbed the back of her neck. “Uh, yeah. It was terrifying, and they didn’t stop after I met Jesse. So add on some weeks to that. So back to the story, I wasn’t happy with well, anything frankly. And when I realized that sunglasses were reflective I smashed and spray painted them black so the flecs couldn’t come out of it and get me. Me and Jesse argued for a bit about the deer’s name.”

“We settled on Alan Dracula,” Jesse provided. “Lake didn’t like it at first.”

“We didn’t settle on anything,” Lake nudged Jesse with her elbow. “You picked the name and I just went with it because it was better than just calling him deer.”

Jesse laughed. “So anyway, it was this weird family tree, and I mean literally, it was entire family _as a tree._ And the more people argued on it the more branches it grew. Lake decided to smash through all the branches and I decided to try to get them to stop fighting. Neither plan actually worked... We got into an argument and I almost became a tree boy.”

“I kept my eyes open during the scary parts and figured out what was going on,” Lake sounded kinda smug. “It was our arguing that was doing that to Jesse. So I started to compliment him and he followed my lead and we made it down the tree. THEN WE SAW ALAN DRACULA CLIMBING UP IT!”

“He was alive! I was so happy!”

“We didn’t even have to climb down that stupid tree!”

“Wait, you shouted ‘unbelievable’ because you were mad?”

“Yeah! It was so annoying getting down there.”

“Buuut, it was a good bonding exercise,” Jesse leaned against Lake with a smile. “I don’t think we would’ve become such good friends if it wasn’t for that.”

“You’re right,” Lake said as she put her hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “It helped build up some trust. Imagine how badly the next car would’ve gone.”

“I think The Map Car would’ve been _okay_ but the Toad Car wow.”

Lake groaned. “That was not my best moment.”

“Do you want me to tell that part then?”

“Yeah, you should, I never did let you tell your side of the story before, you know...”

Right, the phone.

“So we went through a car where I had to build a map to make the world appear. After I finished the map all the water turned into actual reflective water and the flecs jumped out of it and started chasing us,” Jesse spoke in an animated way. “We ran into the next car and Lake dropped a piece of paper, I picked it up because littering’s bad. So the next car was completely empty except for a toad and a sign telling us to kick him. The doors both locked so the flecs couldn’t get in.”

Jesse cleared his throat, not dramatically, it was just dry from all the talking. 

“I can’t believe I forgot to offer you two something to drink,” Whittney said.

“Sure, I’ll have a glass of water,” Jesse said. 

“I’ll have one too,” Lake also accepted the offer. 

Whittney got off the couch and went to the kitchen, Stephan followed her. 

“I didn’t know you could drink,” Jesse said dumbly, thinking nothing of both his parents entering the kitchen.

“Of course I can, I had to reflect Tulip eating and drinking, I just don’t have to eat or drink,” Lake said, looking towards the kitchen with a frown.

“Dad probably decided to get something for himself,” Jesse assured Lake.

Jesse said not to worry, but his parents took longer in the kitchen than Lake was comfortable with. They came back into the living room, Whittney handed the kids their glasses of water and got thanked. Jesse couldn’t help noticing how polite Lake was being, he held back a chuckle.

“One of the flecs, Sieve, I think,” Jesse continued after taking a gulp of water. “He started talking to me through the door and was telling me all these awful things about Lake. How she’s a dangerous criminal, how she lied to her prime, and since I barely knew Lake at the time I started to believe him, especially since I had just picked up a wanted poster with her face on it. Then it became nighttime in The Toad Car and I looked at some stuff on my phone. Sieve heard it and tried to talk me into keeping it out so he and Mace could pop out of it. I wasn’t going to do it but-”

“-I overheard Sieve and my paranoia got the best of me,” Lake interrupted Jesse, “so I smashed and painted his phone. Sorry about that. I know those aren’t cheap.”

Whittney and Stephan exchanged a glance, then Stephan nodded. “It’s alright, a phone is just an object. We got Jesse back, that’s what really matters.”

“We’re just happy he’s home,” Whittney added. 

Lake smiled. “After I broke Jesse’s phone I came clean to him. I told him all about myself and how I technically am a criminal.”

“After that the flecs tried breaking into the car and the toad begged us to kick him, me and Lake decided to both kick the toad to unlock the door together. But he backed into Alan Dracula who kicked him. On the way out I grabbed the toad so the flecs couldn’t get out of the locked car.”

“Do we have to talk about Perry?” Lake asked Jesse. “I kind of don’t want to.”

“Perry? I don’t like how he hurt Alan Dracula, I figured out how to get Perry the parasite out of his mouth by making him sneeze, and Lake got the flower Alan was allergic to. That’s pretty much all there is to say about Perry.”

“The next car was based off of carnivals, I’ve never been to one before, well…” Lake shrugged, “I have been in the hall of mirrors. But that’s all I’ve seen before. The toad from earlier started his own booth at the fair where people kick him. Which, hm, you do you I guess.”

“The toad’s name is Terrance by the way,” Jesse added. “He gave us some cards to play the games with and we checked out the prize booth. There was this very dapper cat in charge of it. She actually recognized Lake.”

“More like she recognized Tulip, she had a couple run-ins with the cat. Apparently they bonded since she was worried about Tulip still being on the train. I told the cat that I’m not Tulip and she quickly lost interest in me.”

“As cats do.”

Lake pointed at Jesse. “You do this part. I’m still mad about it.”

“That’s fair,” Jesse took over as Lake drank her water. “One of the prizes at the booth was the door out and somebody else was playing for it. The cat decided to only let one person use the door each month. She did let me and Lake work together and pool our points to win the contest which was nice of her. It didn’t take long for us to notice that the games were rigged against Lake. Which... really sucks if I’m honest. 

“That’s an understatement,” Lake said under her breath.

Jesse put his hand on Lake’s lap without a thought. “We figured that since the car’s cheating Lake, we’ll cheat it.”

“That part was fun.”

“It was,” Jesse laughed. 

“I broke a scale.”

“You know thinking about it, I’m surprised the couch isn’t tipping over.”

“I’m barely putting any weight on it, it’s fine.”

Jesse groaned when he remembered the next part of the story. “So because Alan Dracula wanted to eat the fake grass in the crane game me and Lake didn’t get to the door first. The girl we were playing against, Grace, did. She opened it up and let in her gang, The Apex.”

“I hate them,” Lake said through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, they’re not great people,” Jesse rested his chin on his hand, his elbow had moved to Lake’s thigh. “So basically they don’t think the denizens of the train are real people and do whatever they want to them to get their numbers up.”

“Diiid we ever explain the number thing?” Lake said after a moment of thought. “I don’t think we did. The goal of the train is to get its passengers to grow enough as people to reduce their number to zero. That opens a door home.”

“So the people in The Apex will probably never get off the train if they keep up what they’re doing.”

“There are little kids in that group! I don’t like them because they’re brats, but if they weren’t brainwashed by two goddamn adults then they probably wouldn’t be such brats for much longer!”

Jesse gasped. “Lake! I can’t believe you swore.”

“Seriously Jesse? You can’t believe _I_ would swear?” Lake flicked him on the forehead. “I’ve done so many questionable things and it’s swearing that crosses the line? I hope you were joking.”

Jesse was not joking.

“Although I would prefer it if you did try to watch your language around Nate,” Whittney said, puzzled slightly by the exchange. All the soft touching between Jesse and Lake, and then a sudden hard-sounding forehead flick.

“I’ll try,” Lake said. “But I can’t guarantee anything for what’s coming up next. Things go pretty downhill for a while for me.”

“Where was I?” Jesse asked himself out loud. “Shoot. Right. The leaders of The Apex, Grace and Simon tried to get me to join them by showing me cool gadgets that let you go anywhere on the train. I,” Jesse sighed and looked at his right hand, “I actually did do something bad. I hurt a denizen’s feelings by breaking one of his blocks.” He looked up. “I felt awful pretty much the whole time I watched The Apex destroy everything he had. I think it’s because I knew Lake so well. I knew they were lying about denizens not having feelings. And when I got back they were being really mean to Lake and Alan Dracula. They were planning on throwing Lake into the wheels on the train! That’s so wrong!”

Lake placed her hand on Jesse’s shoulder to hopefully help him calm down. “I fought off three of the Apex members, I’m pretty sure I broke the one guy’s nose when I punched him. Jesse scared off a kid who had Alan Dracula tied up.”

Lake felt her heart speeding up. She continued, “Grace opened her compact mirror and let the flecs in. I don’t know how she knew about that. But she did.”

“It was me,” Jesse spoke up. “I saw my reflection and got spooked then told her about them. It was stupid, I know.”

“She was messing with your head, it’s understandable.”

“Me and Lake started running away from the flecs and I promised her that we’ll make it off the train together, that’s when my number hit zero and the door opened,” Jesse choked up. “It let me through it, but not Lake. That’s when Nate saw me the first time. I told him what happened and I decided that I needed to get back onto the train. My friend was trapped on there with people trying to kill her for no reason. I felt so strongly about it the train decided to pick me up again.”

Lake rubbed her eyes. “I don’t really want to talk about what I happened while Jesse wasn’t with me. But I really should, he doesn’t know either.”

After drinking some water and taking a deep breath Lake started to fill in the gaps for Jesse. “I didn’t really have time to cry about Jesse being gone. I had to move on so I put on that backpack I saw everybody wearing but it wasn’t enough to help me escape the flecs. They managed to attach a mirror to it. Eventually Mace handcuffed me on top of the train. We never mentioned this before, but the cars move around. Well...”

Another deep breath.

“A car came by and I safely jumped out of the way. Mace wasn’t so lucky. He got cut in half.”

Whittney gasped which interrupted Lake’s storytelling, Stephan looked at her in horror, and Nate looked downright traumatized. Jesse hugged Lake with a quiet, “I’m so sorry.”

Lake decided to just ignore them and continue on, and not dwell on any of it for longer than she had to. “So there Mace was, handcuffed to me and leaking everywhere. And of course, his life mission was to make me as miserable as possible so he kept taunting me. We were in the wasteland as good as dead and he just- kept taunting.”

“He survived being cut in half?” Whittney asked, her tone matching her husband’s face. “And he was handcuffed to you. Lake, oh honey, I...”

“Yeah, he managed to survive that,” Lake wanted to move on as quickly as possible. “I was desperate and all I wanted was to be off the train so I put Mace on Alan Dracula’s back and we started to walk away from the train but... a forcefield kept me from going farther away. Eventually these weird dog-roaches came out of the ground and attacked us. We ran away. Alan Dracula turned into a tumbleweed with us inside, Mace taunted me some more. Eventually we mostly got back to the train. Mace... got caught in the wheels of the train while trying to drag me into them and I saw him die. It... wasn’t pretty. And-” Lake sighed, “-I honestly expected getting Mace off my back to feel good. And I guess it does. But. I don’t know.”

Lake wiped a couple tears out of her eyes and Jesse rubbed her back.

“I had no idea, do you need a moment?” Jesse offered.

“It’s fine, we’re close to the end,” Lake insisted she continue. 

“It can wait,” Stephan said. “What happened sounds terrible.”

“No, I want to get it over with,” Lake regained her composure. “Because I was on the train for so long I noticed that new passengers arrive on pods and that’s how they’re taken to The Number Car. So I decided to get my own number by hijacking somebody’s pod. I needed to get off the train and a number is the only way. I know stealing’s wrong, but I was desperate. For what it’s worth, I feel bad for the old man whose pod I stole. I wanted to talk to him and explain things but I kinda scared him, and then Alan Dracula turned into a horrible giant spider and made things more terrifying for him. So the old guy ran away, I hope he’s okay.

Lake stretched her back. “Now here’s where things get interesting again, and less traumatizing. The Tape Car. Passengers arrive on pods and they stick into the walls. I don’t know what really happens after that since I fell to a lower level and climbed even farther down. This is where the tapes containing the passengers’ memories are made. The people are all in this weird soft floor with tiny robots converting their memories into magnetic tapes. If you touch them you see the memories. When the small robots are done these big ones that look a bit like dinosaurs grab the tapes and slurp them up putting them in a casing. In all honesty, it was such a strange sight and kind of unsettling. Especially with how many people were in there.”

“How many people?” Jesse asked.

“I didn’t exactly count,” Lake replied. “At a quick glance I saw dozens of tapes.”

“Dozens of people...” Jesse quietly said, his eyes wide. “All taken away from their families...”

“Yeah, I’m trying not to think too much about that,” Lake said awkwardly. “So anyway, I fell through the membrane and ended up on The Number Car, the place where passengers get their number. My plan was to steal somebody’s number, I wasn’t really thinking straight at this point. I followed a girl and when she was given her number I put my hand under the machine and the laser just passed through me. As if I wasn’t even there.”

Lake clenched her fists. “As far as the train was concerned I wasn’t a person. I got angry and smashed a lot of things. The conductor of the train, One-One, the ball robot Jesse mentioned earlier came up to me and asked me to stop breaking stuff. I asked him to give me a number, I tried to convince him that I needed one, and he just told me a bunch of crap about being where I belonged because I’m a denizen and that I’m good at helping people.”

“It didn’t even matter to him that my life was in danger on the train,” Lake said, holding back her tears. “One-One decided to look Jesse up on his computer to prove how ‘helpful’ I can be. And since Jesse was picked up by the train so soon after he got off he displayed weird in the computer. So One-One took him to The Number Car and watched his new tape to figure out what was going on. I was impatient and woke Jesse up so we can get everything taken care of.”

“I’ll take it from here,” Jesse softly offered. “I was there for the rest.”

“Thanks,” Lake accepted his offer. 

“When I reunited with Lake we hugged it out and were all happy, then One-One broke it up saying that the train isn’t a place to just hang out with your friends. I told him that I _do_ have a problem. My friend is trapped and I need to help her. This big scary machine dinged and One-One dragged me to it to get my new number. But it wasn’t a number because my problem was trying to get somebody without a number off the train. So One-One got all confused and Sieve broke into the room yelling about how Mace died.”

“Then the jerk offered to kill me to solve One-One’s conundrum and he actually considered it!” Lake couldn’t hold that outburst in.

“I distracted One-One by asking him about my problem. Then Sieve went after Lake and I tried to stop him but he threw me into a screen,” Jesse rubbed his side. “Really hard too. I think I’m gonna get a bruise.” 

“Yeah we should probably get that checked out, you cracked the screen, your bones are kinda brittle.”

“Only compared to metal.”

“Please finish the story,” Nate said, getting impatient. And judging by his shuffling, he probably had to go to the bathroom.

“Right, right,” Jesse continued. “So Sieve was trying to grind Lake down but she blocked him with a chunk of metal from the wall and I’m not sure how she thought of it, but Lake had this brilliant idea to reflect my glitchy number on her hand to trick One-One into thinking she had one.”

“It really shouldn’t have worked,” Lake sheepishly said. “Not that I’m complaining. But Sieve couldn’t just let me leave through my door so he grabbed me by the foot. I was mostly on the other side so I grabbed some grass and threw it towards Alan Dracula who attacked Sieve which made him let go and I got through.”

Jesse was a bit concerned that Lake’s face made it obvious that she left out some details at the end. But he quickly realized that his family was too focused on everything else that happened to really notice.

“It sounds like you two have been through so much,” Whittney got up and walked over to Lake and Jesse. “I think you need a hug.”

Jesse embraced his mom, but Lake stayed put. Whittney hugged Jesse then turned her head towards Lake. “You too Lake.”

That short, simple sentence was enough to get the tears flowing. Lake stopped hesitating and hugged Whittney tightly. The mother rubbed Lake’s back in a comforting way while hearing soft sobs.

“You can stay here for as long as you need,” Whittney said. “We have a guest bedroom you can sleep in and I can take you out shopping to get whatever you need.”

“I really appreciate it,” Lake said into Whittney’s shoulder. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew I wanted to get off the train and stay friends with Jesse. I was worried Mace was right when he told me I had no future out here.”

“Well he was an asshole, and don’t tell Nate I said that,” Whittney added that second part with a chuckle. “You have a future here, we’ll make sure of that.”

“You only met me today and I told you such an unreal story, how do you know I’m not lying?”

“Jesse can’t lie to save his behind for one thing, and your relationship with him, you yourself, and this hug, are all very real. That’s all the proof I need.”

With one last squeeze Whittney and Lake separated. 

While the two of them were hugging Stephan and Nate had started their own group hug with Jesse. Nate ran up and hugged Lake while Stephan firmly and affectionately gripped her shoulder. 

“I’m sure my wife already told you this, but you have a place here for as long as you need,” Stephan smiled warmly.

Lake placed her hand on Stephan’s arm with a smile. “Thanks.”

The moment was broken by Jesse sniffing his clothes. “You know, I should probably shower.”

“Maybe I should too,” Lake looked at her arm. “I’m getting kind of dingy. Or maybe buffing would be more appropriate? This isn’t something I’ve ever had to think about.”

“Well, whatever you decide, you can borrow some of my clothes when you do it,” Jesse said with a shrug. 

“Oh that is dangerous, how do you know you’ll get them back?”

“I don’t mind,” Jesse started walking towards the bedrooms. “I have lots of clothes.”

Nate rushed past them.

“What’s that about?” Lake asked.

“Our story was kinda long,” Jesse replied. “Our bathroom is also down this hall.”

With a laugh Lake grabbed Jesse’s hand. “You’ll have to remember to give me the grand tour.”

“Of course,” Jesse happily held Lake’s hand back, it felt good.

It made getting off the train, having a future, being safe, well, everything feel real.

They were both off the train and together.

**Author's Note:**

> Well this was fun. For a while I wasn't sure about writing a recap for the show but I enjoyed writing how Jesse and Lake would tell the story. And after a couple(several) rewatches of the scene where Lake steals the pod I noticed that they did reach out to that old man before he ran away.


End file.
